And if you turn your head 45 degrees see another Nissan Fairlady 350Z parked next to a big giant?
Nissan Fairlady 350Z
It is possible: if you visit the funpark Madurodam in the Hague! The funpark is a scaled down version of the landmarks in the Netherlands, so a heaven for all scale model enthusiasts! 😛

I’ve paid the park a visit with my son and my wife and saw various cars parked or driving on the roads of Madurodam. Most of them were just VW/Audi/Mercedes/etc. and actually some were interesting cars like Porsches and Masseratis but I did not expect some JDM car nut to throw around Skylines, Fairladies and Celicas as if they were common cars in the Netherlands! Take for instance this blue R34 next to the main railway station of Utrecht:
Blue Nissan Skyline R34 in Utrecht (main railway station)
Just blends in the scenery nicely!

I saw this amazing video containing all Japanese Nissan Skyline commercials being announced a few weeks back on a Minkara blog:
Nissan Skyline Japanese commercials collection
This DVD covers almost all models: from the second generation (S50), third generation (C10 aka hakosuka), fourth (C110 aka Kenmeri) and up to the tenth generation (R34)!

We all know the famous Bee*R R324 conversions. Ever since they became available they are flooding the forums! So let’s kick off with a nice example in Finland:
Now, that’s the old style…

Let’s have a look at the the new style B?RS ER34:
I know, I know… Most of you don’t like the B?RS at all! But think about it as what most people thought about JDM car styling 10 years ago… Will this be our future?

Anyway, I got an email from James pointing out that not all R31s got round taillights and that the Australian built R31s got the RB30E engine. Now we’re talking potential here! As he writes that the RB20, RB25 and RB26 heads fit on it a lot of people must put the RB25DET or RB26DETT head on the RB30 block.

I found an article on Wikipedia about this RB30+other RB head and read there are basically the same problems as with the 7AGE: the block is not capable of revving above 7500 rpm and is less strong as the other RB blocks. It may not deliver as much power as the RB25DET but it sure promises to deliver a lot more torque than this engine! Tommy Kaira’s M30 did make use of such engine, but mated it to a RB20DE head. This engine produced 294Nm torque opposed to the 255Nm of the RB25DE, so imagine what the potential torque would be of a RB30DET. 😉

Well, it’s not that I’m all of a sudden going to write that what I thought was ugly half a year ago is now all of a sudden beautiful. In contrary: I still have the same opinion about the R31 and R33 4 door sedans in that posting… I do have a bit different feelings towards the R31 van: it a car with a lot of potential if you put a series 3 front on it, a bit like the famous Stagea with R34 nose swap.

I do love the R31, honestly I do! But what I don’t like is the series 1 and 2 headlights… But that is, of course, my personal opinion and you may or may not share that with me. Sorry if you feel offended by that… 😉

I posted this video a few days back on AEU86, but in my opinion the video is misunderstood.

2 Toyota AE86s vs Nissan R34:

In this video featuring Keiichi Tsuchiya and Manabu Orido taking on a “nerd” in a Nissan Skyline GTR-34. Ofcourse the two hachis win and making the piss out of the GTR. Often this is directly translated into the Hachi still being capable of beating other cars.

In my opinion this interpretation is wrong. First of all the two hachis have been modified a lot (165hp and 200hp) and drive against a bone stock GTR. Don’t forget Keiichi had over 15 years of experience with the hachi-roku when that video was shot. He modified his 165hp hachi to the max, giving him the optimal advantage.

Then both Keiichi and Orido are very experienced AE86 drivers and know the car pretty well. This against a total inexperienced GTR driver is like stealing candy from a baby. To illustrate how experienced Keiichi is: Orido can’t even pass him with a 35hp difference. Then take in mind how Keiichi drove with a R32 in the past and draw your conclusion: the driver of the R34 just sucks.

In my opinion this is also the conclusion of the video in Japanese. The “nerd” boasting about his R34 and Keiichi and Orido showing him that even if you pick the fastest car you’re nothing without skill